The Metropolitan Police Department raided the head offices of Mitsubishi Estate Co. and Hitachi Ltd. on Wednesday over alleged illegal payoffs to a "sokaiya" corporate extortionist.
Nineteen investigators arrived at Hitachi's head office in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward shortly after 10 a.m. Wednesday, a day after two Mitsubishi Estate officials and one Hitachi official were arrested for allegedly paying beach house fees to corporate extortionist Terubo Tei, 53.
Twelve officers also raided the head office of Mitsubishi Estate in the same ward to seize documents possibly related to the sokaiya case. Teruo Uchino, a 53-year-old deputy manager in Hitachi's administrative department and the two Mitsubishi officials -- Kazuyuki Yabu, a 44-year-old deputy general manager of the general affairs department, and Masataka Kozono, a 41-year-old member of that department -- are suspected of violating the Commercial Code by paying off Tei, police said.